Seven women, some from RI, may be called to testify against Nick Alahverdian in Utah. Here’s why.

• Utah prosecutors plan to call other women to testify they were assaulted by Nicholas Alahverdian
• Alahverdian admitted to faking his death in 2020 and living under an assumed name in Scotland.
• Alahverdian’s case has been an international sensation, spawning several podcasts and true crime documentaries.

Prosecutors in Nicholas Alahverdian’s two Utah rape cases plan to call as witnesses as many as seven other women who claim the Rhode Island con man who faked his death sexually assaulted them.

Alahverdian, 37, was convicted of groping one of the perspective witnesses in Ohio in 2008 and ordered to register as a sex offender. But he was not charged in any of the other six alleged incidents which prosecutors report happened between 2007 and 2016.

His defense lawyers argue in court documents that allowing the seven women to testify, including three who say they were attacked in Rhode Island, would unfairly prejudice the juries in both cases.

“The state seeks to introduce, among other things, seemingly every ‘bad act’ Mr. Rossi is alleged to have committed in his life,” wrote his defense lawyer Samantha Dugan in the Salt Lake City case. (Alahverdian is charged under the last name of his stepfather, Rossi.)

“Admission of most of what the state seeks to introduce would violate Mr. Rossi’s right to a fair trial,” she argued, since Utah law prevents a defendant’s previous acts from being used to establish a defendant’s character.

But prosecutors in the cases argue that such evidence can be used for other purposes, including for establishing a defendant’s modus operandi and to defend against charges that the plaintiffs in the cases fabricated the rapes.

The seven perspective witnesses report meeting Alahverdian online and within short periods of time fell victim to his sexual aggression.

Prosecutors will also talk about Alahverdian faking his death

Prosecutors say they also plan to introduce the history of how Alahverdian faked his death in 2020 and for almost four years, as his discovery in Scotland and extradition case blossomed into an international media spectacle compounded by his farcical claims, Alahverdian insisted he was someone else.

That was until last October when, in a failed attempt to win bail, he confessed to the whole charade, telling a Utah judge he had fled to the United Kingdom, not to avoid any prosecutions (the FBI was also seeking him for alleged credit card fraud) but to escape death threats from unnamed Rhode Island lawmakers, angered over his lobbying efforts to improve the state’s child welfare system.

“Not only did he fake his own death and assume various aliases, but he vehemently denied that he was Nicholas Rossi during the extradition process – when he knew that he was being returned to face this first-degree felony charge of rape,” wrote Deputy Utah County Attorney McKay Lewis.

“Defendant’s extensive scheme to lie about his identity and avoid prosecution is strong evidence of his consciousness of guilt regarding the charged crime and should therefore be admitted,” said Lewis.

Authorities say Alahverdian raped a 21-year-old Orem woman in September 2008. The two met online and had been dating for a few weeks before breaking up over his growing aggressive nature, she told police.

He raped her, police say, after luring her back to his apartment with the promise he would repay her money owed her.

Two months after the alleged Orem rape, police say he raped a 26-year-old woman in Salt Lake City. Again, the couple had met online, dated briefly and even bought wedding rings.

But after a violent argument at a shopping mall – Alahverdian threatened to call the police and report that she had hit him if she didn’t let him back in her car – the two returned to his apartment where he raped her, police say.

Several witnesses are from incidents in Rhode Island

Among the seven perspective witnesses prosecutors reported planning to call is another Utah woman who claims Alahverdian forced intercourse with her in Clearfield, Utah in 2007; two woman who say they had to fight off Alahverdian’s sexual advances in his Pawtucket apartment in 2010; and a woman who lived in Warren who told police Alahverdian forced a sexual encounter upon her.

Alahverdian’s trial in the Salt Lake City case is scheduled to start in May. The Orem case is currently scheduled to go to trial in the fall.

Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com